BU football records fall

With the season over, the Baker University Wildcat football team can look back it with pride, not only the 9-2 record and the victory in the KWTO Bowl game, but also for a number of broken records.

There were five new records set, one tied and another one almost fell. Of those seven marks, six were on defense and one on special teams. Those are the areas that set apart this year's crew.

"What that means is we had some good people on defense," said coach John Frangoulis. "They have a lot of talent and are experienced. They are well coached not by me, but my assistants and know what to do."

It's more of the same with special teams, but that is the area that Frangoulis coaches. One of the more impressive records was tied there and by two people. All-American defensive back Mark Emry and linebacker Eric Moore both blocked five kicks, which tied the mark set in 1991 by Marco Aires.

"We stress that and practice that," he said, of blocked kicks. "On our special teams we use our starters. We've probably won four games the last two years with kick blocks."

As for the other records, Mickey Ramsey, a 5-foot-11, 215-pound junior who transferred to Baker this year, set two of them. Ramsey had 24 tackles in the Evangel game to break the single-game mark of 21 set by Scooter Fulton in 1993. Ramsey, a linebacker, also set the season record with 132, which also broke Fulton's '93 mark of 121.

"I knew he was good, but he was a pleasant surprise," Frangoulis said of Ramsey's performance. "He's not overly big, but he runs very well. He makes blockers miss and that's what he does best. Mickey's got a great nose for the ball."

Another defensive record to fall was the individual pass break ups in a single game, which Dax Barker broke with seven against Benedictine. The old mark was four, set by three different players. Barker and Emry each had 18 pass break ups for the season which broke the old record by Troy Anderson set in 1996.

Moore, a 6-0, 196-pound sophomore, also came close to the sack record this year. He had 12 from his linebacker position, which came close to Leroy Brown's 13.5 sacks in 1992.

The lone offensive record to fall was rushing attempts in a game. Terence Spencer ran the ball 42 times in the William Jewell game, which eclipsed Ed Lierz's 1987 mark of 38.

A couple of players did put up numbers in two year spans that brought them up the charts in two offensive categories. Quarterback Levi Schuck pulled into third place in the BU All-Time Passing Yards Leaders with 3,256 yards and 31 touchdowns. That left him behind Baldwin product Tim Sheldon (5,584 yards, 48 touchdowns) and Mike Baggs (3,954 yards, 42 touchdowns) and ahead of another Baldwin product, Pat Richard (3,141 yards, 26 touchdowns).